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Ga. city checking social media sites before hiring

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Alpharetta city officials say they are now checking the Facebook accounts of applicants for police and firefighter jobs in the suburban Atlanta community.

City officials tell WSB-TV that they’re also checking the Twitter and YouTube accounts of job applicants.

Alpharetta police spokesman George Gordon said officials are looking for signs of potentially embarrassing or legally troubling posts or material that suggests applicants have biases against ethnicities.

Gordon said officials don’t ask applicants for their passwords, but they require them to disclose the account and open it for viewing when they are with a background investigator.

The idea of checking the social media sites of job applicants has become controversial across the nation, particularly when employers request passwords to the sites.